


...and all the king's horses...

by MeltingPenguins (lilmaibe)



Series: The Ballad of Caleb Quinn [3]
Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game), Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:07:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28957674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilmaibe/pseuds/MeltingPenguins
Summary: A tie-in to 'The Ballad of Sorrow Creek' taking a look at how Kieran ended up in Caleb's timeline and what happened then.
Series: The Ballad of Caleb Quinn [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985521
Kudos: 3





	...and all the king's horses...

**Author's Note:**

> This is a tie-in to the Dead by Daylight fanfic 'The Ballad of Sorrow Creek'. Please read that first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Note: I am right now uncertain if this ought to be written, so please let me know in the comments if you want to read more. Thank you)

People either over-or-underestimate the swamps of Louisiana. The muggy air, the plethora of insects, the treacherous waters and the unearthly sounds whispering in the wind. And of course, the non-insect fauna. Which consisted, according to one Seán O'Brian and his companions of Mason Kelly's gang of outlaws, solely and thoroughly of bloody alligators.

The gang had made camp deep in the swamps after a rather successful robbery, waiting for their trail to grow cold. Which meant they, as often before, had to live off what they could hunt and gather, which, obviously, proved to be quite a pain in the arse.

"Let's be frank," Murphy, the other member of the little hunting duo concluded, "Hudson's prolly gonna serve one o' us for dinner if we bring 'im alligator again."

"That's a given." Seán groaned, scouring the area. They had spent far too much time hunting already and it had gone dark. Yet they knew they couldn't just return to camp with nothing but a handful of birds and fish. There were almost two dozen mouths to feed. "Least we gots some birds."

"Yeah, 'cause the bloody gators haven't been eatin' them yet." Murphy rolled his eyes before looking over the nightly swamp as well. "What d'ya think, O'Brian?"

"Mhnn?"

"What are them scaly buggers gonna eat now that they 'parantly gobbled up ev'rything else?"

"Us?" Seán dead-panned. And then, as if to answer the hypothetical question, a scream echoed through the swamp. Definitely human and definitely close by. Very close by.

Seán and Murphy exchanged confused looks.

"Didn't McGill and Strand say there was no signs o' other humans around?" Seán voiced their thoughts. Before Murphy could even nod Seán was stalking towards the voice.

Murphy grunted, undecided whether to follow the younger man or to let Seán's curiosity take the better of him. It'd be one mouth less to feed. Issue was, Seán was also the one carrying most of what they had hunted so far, so the decision wasn't as much an issue after all.

The two men edged closer, watching their step on the slick ground, when they spotted a guy up in one of the sturdy trees of the swamp. The moonlight was bright enough to reveal the man as tall, scrawny, maybe somewhere between Seán's and Murphy's age and with a look like several frightened animals about him.

Latter probably had something to do with the two small alligators below the tree, snapping and hissing at him. 

"What the hell yer doin' up there?" Seán called, drawing the man's attention. In response the man frantically pointed at the scaly beasts below.

"I think them bastards can climb trees," Seán noted.

"They can?" the guy cried out, voice cracking, just as Seán and Murphy fired their rifles, taking both gators out.

"Well, now they can't." Seán grinned triumphantly, but the grin fell quickly. "Eesh, guess it's alligator again..." He looked back at the man in the tree. "Are there any more on yer tail?"

"Don't think so." The man shook his head. "But... but you knows how sneaky they can be."

Seán nodded and waited a moment, then stepped forward. "Coast's clear. Am comin' over."

With a nod to Murphy he shouldered his rifle and edged forward over the muddy ground, looking for proper foothold underneath the tree. The guy, meanwhile, was rather haphazardly climbing back down.

"I gotcha," Seán called and lent a hand, and the guy let out a relieved sigh as he stood on more or less solid ground again.

"Thank you..." he began, before breaking into a terrible cough, turning away.

"Yer alright?" Seán asked. And it wasn't the coughing that worried him most. It was how the guy looked. It wasn't that he was soaked with swamp water, that was a given. It was rather that beyond the water his shirt looked as if it had been soaked in blood before, just like the man's face appeared to have been caked with dried blood that was now smearing his cheeks.

"I... I dunno," the man answered, swaying on his feet a little as Seán led him over to where Murphy was waiting. "W-where am I?"

"Middle o' nowhere in one o' Louisiana's swamps," Murphy answered.

The guy blinked. "What's a Louisiana?"

Seán and Murphy exchanged suspicious glances.

"What's a..." Seán then echoed, shaking his head. "Yer alright, mate? Did ya hurt yer head or somethin'?"

The guy blinked again. "Yes. I... I..." Then he gave the two men a look even more rattled and panicked than before, looking them up and down as if to assess whether to run or to drop down to his knees and beg for mercy. Thankfully Murphy raised another question before the guy came to a conclusion.

"Yer with anyone? Ya don't look nothing like anyone livin' in these parts of the nation."

"I..." the guy began, then took a deep breath, held it and exhaled slowly. "Can ya tell me how far we are from Shady Belle?"

"Shady what now?" Murphy responded, fingers twitching for his gun. Seán put a hand on Murphy's, shaking his head.

"Old, abandoned mansion," the guy explained, still looking as if he hadn't decided whether he should panic or if these two strangers were pulling his leg.

"There's a couple o' those around," Seán said, looking into the darkness, "but none by that name."

"Oh... I..." The guy seemed to ponder, "Y-ya didn't come across the Van der Linde gang by chance?"

"Who?" Seán again. "If ya mean Van der Bruggen and his men, I think they're up in Dakota Territory right now?"

"Naw, I think they went east to Missouri last I heard," Murphy noted.

The guy gave them both another blank stare, before he hung his head, rubbing his arms. "You're not kiddin' me?"

"Why should we..." Seán shook his head again and stepped a little closer. "Mate, I dunno what happened t' ya, but ya should really sit down." He carefully navigated the guy to a nearby stump, waiting for him to calm down.

"Now, somethin' I oughta have asked before," Seán then said, kneeling down to lock eyes with the guy. "Who are ya?"

The guy looked at him, looked at Murphy, looked around, before sighing. "Kieran. Kieran Duffy. A-are you certain you never heard of..."

"I'd like to give yer question 'bout kidding people back to ya, Kieran,'' Seán answered. "I never heard any of these names in me life."

Behind him, Murphy casually — maybe a little too casually— inspected his rifle. "Ya know, if yer with O'Hearn or Prescott an' this is a trap, yer friends abandoned ya."

"Who?" Kieran said, genuinely baffled (assuming he could get even more confused at this point).

"We're starting to sound like a bunch o' owls,'' Seán groaned, getting back to his feet and turning to Murphy. "I don't think he's with either. Ain't O'Hearn an' his boys over in Oregon?"

"Yeah, but that was almost two months ago."

"Still. An' look at him, Murphy, someone like that in Prescott's bunch?"

"Ya never know, O'Brian."

Seán shook his head. "I gotta know people fast. It's me job. An' I think we can trust Kieran here." He looked back down. "Know what, mate, yer coming with us."

"Kelly's gonna strangle ya, O'Brian," Murphy reminded Seán grimly. "We don't have enough t' eat as is, we can't bring in another mouth to feed."

"We got them gators." Seán jabbed his thumb at the dead reptiles.

"Then Hudson will strangle ya."

"Look, we can't just leave him out here, can we? Poor sod's about to lose his head."

At this Kieran laughed a bitter and choking laugh.

"Ya alright?" Seán asked again.

"I... guess." Kieran got up to unsteady legs. "Look... I... I dunno how I got here, but... I can make myself useful. I'm good with horses. I can help you peo-" he paused. "Yer outlaws, ain't ya?"

"What did ya think we was?"

"Oh, I mean the boss says we're a bit o' a traveling circus," Seán noted casually, actually making Kieran chuckle a tiny bit. Murphy just rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he murmured. "But only 'cause there's no sign o' trouble. But if he," he nodded towards Kieran, "tries anythin' funny..."

"I-I won't, sir. Don't worry," Kieran quickly assured.

"Then make yerself useful, Duffy, and take one o' them gators."

Kieran whimpered softly, looking at the massive animal behind him.

"Take the smaller one," Seán suggested, stepping aside to let Murphy pick up the bigger of the two reptiles.

"Oh. Yes." Kieran still stood over the animal, unsure what to do, until Seán nudged him. "Hey, Murphy's pullin' yer leg now. Ya don't look as if ya could carry a whole alligator through the swamp right now. Dunno if yer stronger than ya look, but I don't think yer in any state to try."

Kieran blinked and nodded thankfully, and Seán pushed the bag with the dead birds into his hands.

"Don't lose that," Seán said.

"I won't."

They stalked through the quickly-darkening swamp for a bit, Murphy walking behind Kieran and consistently checking over his shoulder to see and listen if they were followed.

"I... didn't get yer names," Kieran suddenly said, catching up to Seán.

"Ah, we never gave them," Seán said.

"Well, that's an explanation." Kieran sighed. "But... it was O'Brian and Murphy, right?"

Seán nodded. "The grumpy guy behind ya is Patrick Murphy, like the song. As for I... Hello, I'm Seán."

"Oh... W-well, nice to meet ya. I guess." Kieran tensed again. "Hey... I-I think there's not much a chance, but... ya don't happen to know of Colm O'Driscoll?"

"Friend of yours?" Seán asked.

"Definitely not."

"Well, I never heard o' him." Seán craned his neck looking at Murphy. "How 'bout you?"

Murphy just shrugged. "I got a cousin named Colm. But the kid's four."

Kieran gave him yet another blank stare, before he tilted his head back and... sighed, relieved, a small smile crawling over his lips. "Well, alright then," he said. "Lead the way then."

—


End file.
